Barbara Ballard

In this "year of the mobile web" where pundits everywhere are talking about how "the web is the platform" .... In this time of "let's get a good enough browser and then mobile will take off" ... In this time of "Java ME is dead" ... 4 of our 6 first quarter projects have major components in Java ME. These are new applications, from companies who understand the porting issues and the complexities. Why are they using Java ME? Because they need to store some of their application logic and/or data locally Because the app or data needs to be available without the network Because the application would be dreadfully slow as a web app Because they are creating a push messaging client that needs more rich interaction than simple SMS (and better interoperability than MMS) This quarter is not particularly different from other quarters: we get far more work designing applicati... (more)

Mobile Design: Tips and Tricks

Mobile Internet sites are not as easy to use as their computer-targeted Web-site cousins, due to smaller screens, more difficult text input, and a wide variety of user situations. Despite these factors, industry experts agree that mobile access to Web sites needs to be more usable than computer access. Although there are many resources from browser manufacturers, carriers, and industry organizations available to achieve this (see design reources at the end of the article), severe design mistakes continue to be made. An unusable site can prevent users from being able to perform t... (more)

Write Thrice, Run Anywhere

The explosion of devices, markup languages, and platforms in the mobile application arena has developers pulling their hair out. Trying to have a separate application for every language is hard enough - but even then, the application still needs to be optimized for different devices. Developing and maintaining multiple applications typically becomes extremely costly...and still ends up restricting users' choices. Enter the idea of an engine that will convert from one language to another, reducing the number of applications to maintain. An engine such as this should allow the deve... (more)